MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : – US spending bill drops Turkey sanctions
By Amberin Zaman March 22, 2018 – Article Summary – 22 March 2018 – A draft spending bill has dropped proposed Turkey sanctions meant to target Turkey’s detention of Americans and US consulate staff amid US efforts to ease tensions with Ankara. Proposed language on Turkey sanctions in defense of what Congressional lawmakers call US hostages was dropped from a draft $1.3 trillion federal spending bill that was released to the public yesterday.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : ONE VOICE – ONE LEADER – ONE MEDIA = ERDOGAN
Kadri GürselVerified account @KadriGursel – 22 March 2018
BREAKING: Turkey’s media mogul Aydın Doğan sold his entire media group to the pro-government media owner Demirören. By this huge takeover including Hürriyet, Turkish mass media industry comes under the direct political control of President Erdoğan
More via www.mesop.de
MESOP NEWS : CIRCULATING HARDWARE
Anti-tank weapons delivered by US in Iraq, Syria nabbed from PKK in southeastern Turkey’s Şırnak
IHA Photo
Turkish security forces captured two Swedish-made AT-4 anti-tank weapons during operations against the PKK terrorist group in the Şırnak province of southeastern Turkey. On its official Twitter account, the Turkish General Staff released the picture of the weapons that were captured in Andaç village of Uludere district bordering northern Iraq, where the PKK terrorist group maintains a significant presence.The man-portable AT-4s, built in Sweden by Saab Bofors Dynamics, are among the world’s most used light anti-tank weapons.
AT-4s are among the weapons delivered by the U.S. to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by the PKK’s Syrian offshoot the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The area where the weapons were captured is some 90 kilometers (56 miles) northeast of the territory controlled by the YPG in northeast Syria.
Iraqi government forces were also the recipients of AT-4s in their fight against Daesh, but the weapons might as well have ended up in the hands of Iran-backed militia groups.
Turkey has long objected U.S. support to the PYD and YPG in the pretext of fighting Daesh terrorist group, saying that these groups have organic ties to the PKK, which is recognized as a terrorist group by the U.S., the EU and NATO. Ankara proposed an active partnership with the U.S. on the ground in Syria, which has not borne fruit so far, instead of U.S. policies that have jeopardized regional security by arming terrorist groups and militia organizations. It is estimated that 5,000 truckloads and 2,000 planeloads of weapons have been delivered to the SDF by the U.S.
Weapons delivered to the SDF to fight Daesh have been used in numerous attacks by the PKK against Turkish military inside Turkey’s borders as well as cross-border attacks. A large stockpile of U.S.-made or coalition-made weapons were also seized during Operation Olive Branch in northwestern Syria’s Afrin despite the fact that the region, handed over to YPG terrorists by the Assad regime in 2012, has never experienced a significant Daesh threat.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS TODAYs GENERAL COMMENTARY : THE YPG(PKK) IS THE LOOSER – BUT IS ERDOGAN THE WINNER ?
Turkey’s Syrian Battleground
By Burak Bekdil March 21, 2018 – BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 777, March 21, 2018 – Israel
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been the main beneficiary of a newfound feeling of glory among Turkey’s increasingly nationalistic masses. The main loser is the YGP, which has sought to consolidate control over Kurdish areas of Syria in the hopes of forging an autonomous state. But in the Syrian war theater, alliances are fragile and complex. Russia has given Turkey a limited free hand in its engagement in northern Syria, mainly in order to deepen Turkish-US and Turkish-NATO divisions. But Russia is not Turkey’s strategic ally.
Erdogan impatient to charge ahead in Syria as Ankara sizes up Pompeo
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS TODAYS OPINION : US POMPEO & SULTAN RECEP TAYYP – Turkey Pulse
Semih Idiz March 20, 2018 – AL MONITOR – Article Summary – The US president’s choice for his new secretary of state comes at an inconvenient time for Erdogan’s plans to capitalize on Turkey’s victory over the US-allied Syrian Kurdish militia in Afrin. Mike Pompeo, then a congressional representative for Kansas, arrives to testify before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on his nomination to be become director of the CIA at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Jan. 12, 2017. It is not clear at this stage what effect President Donald Trump’s nomination of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state will have on Turkish-American ties, already strained over a number of seemingly intractable issues.What is clear, though, is that Ankara is rattled with Trump’s choice. The reason is a tweet by Pompeo during the coup attempt in July 2016 in which he likened Turkey, alongside Iran, to a “totalitarian Islamic dictatorship.”
MESOP NEWS TODAYS TOP OF THE AGENDA : EU & US THEY ALL FLATTER ERDOGAN – BECAUSE HE MIGHT COME CLOSER WITH PUTIN
MESOP NEWS TODAYS TOP OF THE AGENDA : EU & US THEY ALL ARE FLATTER ERDOGAN – BECAUSE HE MIGHT COME CLOSER WITH PUTIN
Ankara is a difficult friend, but that doesn’t mean the United States should cut it loose.If the United States didn’t already face enough troubles in Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently threatened American troops with an “Ottoman slap” if they interfered with Turkey’s military incursion into northwestern Syria. The threat, coming two days before a visit to Turkey by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, underscored just how contentious relations between Ankara and Washington have become, and how close this historic alliance is to crumbling altogether—to the detriment of both states.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS “CONTRA KURDS” : A STRATEGIC MEETING OF CLOSE FRIENDS & PARTNERS AHEAD
(Kurtulmus has also discussed ongoing preparations for the Turkey-Russia Culture and Tourism Year in 2019 and participated in the opening ceremony of the Moscow branch of Turkish cultural center Yunus Emre Institute)
Foreign ministers set stage for Putin-Erdogan meeting in April
Yekaterina Chulkovskaya March 19, 2018 – AL MONITOR – Article Summary – Expect to see an effort to boost Russian-Turkish collaboration when the presidents of both countries meet in two weeks. When the Russia-Turkey High Level Cooperation Council (HLCC) meets next month in Ankara, the presidents of each country are expected to discuss the issues of lifting visa requirements and deepening economic and military-technical cooperation, as well as developments in war-torn Syria, where each country pursues its own interests and, currently, tries not to interfere in the other’s business.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : THE DENIZ YÜCEL DEAL / EU leaders and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are expected to meet at a summit set for March 26 in Varna, Bulgaria
Germany hails success of EU-Turkey refugee agreement
Merkel’s spokesman: Deal has significantly decreased deaths in Aegean, improved conditions of millions of Syrian refugees – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert
By Ayhan Simsek – BERLIN – 20 March 2018 – ANADOLU AGENCY – Germany has hailed the success of EU-Turkey refugee agreement in countering irregular migration and improving the living conditions of Syrian refugees. “For the German government, this is a joint success, both for Europe and for Turkey,” Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman told a news conference in Berlin Monday.“After this agreement, far fewer people died in the Aegean Sea while trying to enter Greece,” Steffen Seibert said.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS INSIGHT : ERDOGAN’S PLANS WITH AFRIN
‘Turkey’s next step is to stabilize Syria’s Afrin’
By Nilay Kar Onum – 20 March Anadolu Agency – ISTANBUL – The next step of the Turkish-led Operation Olive Branch in Syria’s Afrin region is to stabilize and secure regions cleared from PYD/PKK terrorists, Turkish presidential spokesman said on Monday.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS BACKGROUNDER : ERDOGANS FURTHER PROGRESS AND T HE US REACTION – US tried to deceive Turkey in Syria, says Erdoğan
THE DEFENSE ONE BRIEF 20 March 2018
| Turkey is on a rampage, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Monday to send his invasion forces on from formerly Kurdish-held Afrin, Syria, toward the city of Manbij, where American troops are deployed in support of Kurdish fighters. Recall that Erdogan’s goal is to end the Kurdish presence wherever it can be found, in this case near its border with Syria, as the Kurdish YPG militia have been waging an insurgency in Turkey for years.
Of the ongoing incursion into NW Syria, Erdogan said, “We will continue this process until we entirely eliminate this corridor, including in Manbij, Ayn al-Arab, Tal Abyad, Ras al-Ayn and Qamishli.” The U.S. military’s reax was tepid and cautious. “We are very concerned about the effect that fighting there [in Afrin] has had” on the war against ISIS in Syria, Pentagon spokesman U.S. Army Col. Rob Manning told reporters Monday. But Erdogan wasn’t done talking — nor was he finished taking swings at the U.S. “You [that is, the U.S.] have tried to deceive us,” Erdogan told parliament this morning, according to Kurdish Rudaw news. “If we are strategic partners, you will have to respect us and move along with us. You [U.S.] tried to deceive us. You sent 5,000 trucks of weapons there. You sent more than 2,000 trucks of ammunition there. We wanted weapons from you to buy with our money, but you did not give any to us. What kind of a strategic partnership or solidarity is this?” he asked for the cameras. More from Turkey’s Hürriyet Daily News, here. |
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/us-attempted-to-deceive-turkey-erdogan-says-129020
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